draughts, after the attainment of a certain degree of mental and animal
stolidity, seemed rather to fortify than to weaken their defences, and
to fit them more perfectly for a due prolongation of the warfare. The
appetite, too, like most appetites, growing from what it fed on,
ventured few idle expostulations; glass after glass, in rapid
succession, fully attested the claim of these two champions to the
renown which such exercises in that section of the world had won for
them respectively. The subject of conversation, which, in all this time,
accompanied their other indulgences, was, very naturally, that of the
pedler and his punishment. On this topic, however, a professional not
less than personal policy sealed the lips of our lawyer except on those
points which admitted of a general remark, without application or even
meaning. Though drunk, his policy was that of the courts; and the
practice of the sessions had served him well, in his own person, to give
the lie to the "_in vino veritas_" of the proverb.

Things were in this condition when the company found increase in the
person of the landlord, who now made his appearance; and, as we intend
that he shall be no unimportant auxiliary in the action of our story, it
may be prudent for a few moments to dwell upon the details of his
outward man, and severally to describe his features. We have him before
us in that large, dark, and somewhat heavy person, who sidles awkwardly
into the apartment, as if only conscious in part of the true uses of his
legs and arms. He leans at this moment over the shoulders of one of the
company, and, while whispering in his ears, at the same time, with an
upward glance, surveys the whole. His lowering eyes, almost shut in and
partially concealed by his scowling and bushy eyebrows, are of a quick
gray, stern, and penetrating in their general expression, yet, when
narrowly observed, putting on an air of vacancy, if not stupidity, that
furnishes a perfect blind to the lurking meaning within. His nose is